Oilers at the Midway Point

Back in November, I took a look at some things around this Oilers team that jumped out at me analytically. Now that we’ve played over half the games of this year’s regular season I thought it would be good to highlight a few more things surrounding this team.

All stats via http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/

Right off the top, something that jumped out to me was Patrick Maroon. The big-bodied winger has found his game playing alongside Connor McDavid, and has scored 15 5v5 goals this season. That puts him second in the NHL in 5v5 goals, behind Sidney Crosby, Michael Grabner and Auston Matthews, who each have 16.

In 5v5 goals per hour in players >200 mins, Maroon ranks seventh while Tyler Pitick sits ahead of him in the sixth slot. It’s a true shame that Pitlick went down with a torn ACL on Dec. 19. He was having a really solid season production wise, finally showing he could play in the NHL. I was curious to see if he would’ve been a player elevated more in the lineup down the stretch.

By eye, I have thought that Eric Gryba has had a solid season. He looks to be making smarter plays with the puck on his stick and has shown an ability to make passes like we haven’t from him. While his slow foot speed still gets him in trouble he has been a solid option for the Oilers this season. The numbers support him as through his 22 GP, he holds a 55 CF% and a PDO of 97.7.

As I wrote about in November, Matthew Benning has been a darling for the Oilers this season.

At five-on-five, there were a number of things that jumped out. First off, through his first seven NHL games and first 100 minutes of 5v5TOI, Matthew Benning is a 55.7 CF% player and also leads in CF%Rel. He is third on the team. The case of Benning is a curious one, as some couldn’t quite figure out why he was still up in Edmonton when he had the opportunity to get significant ice time in Bakersfield.

I’ll start off by giving a stick tap to Peter Chiarelli, as this was quite a nice find from the NCAA. Benning has stepped in and reminded me of Brandon Davidson in the sense of a rookie defenceman who has the ability to already play in the NHL Benning’s numbers have sustained, as now through 30 games he is posting a 5v5 55.2 CF%.

Benning also ranks third on the Oilers in points per hour, at a 0.79 pace. Beyond this, he has shown an ability to not be shy in the NHL. Jumping up in the rush, laying body check and dropping the mitts are all in this young man’s repertoire and he is doing it all with confidence. It’s going to be fun to continue to watch him develop.

Oilers at 5v5, 2016-2017, 2029:08 TOI:

CF% – 51.6 – 9th in the NHL

GF% – 51.7- 11th in the NHL

SF% – 51.5 – 8th in the NHL

PDO – 100.1 – 11th in the NHL

The numbers below is from my “A fifth of the way there” article with the stats pulled Nov. 15. Link at the top of the article.

Oilers at 5v5, 2016-2017, 775:34 TOI:

CF% – 50.4 – 12th in the NHL

GF% – 50.0 – 14th in the NHL

SF% – 51.0 – 10th in the NHL

PDO – 99.7 – 14th in the NHL

Oilers at 5v5, 2015-2016, 3912:44 TOI:

CF% – 48.8 – 19th in the NHL

GF% – 44.3 – 29th in the NHL

SF% – 48.5 – 23rd in the NHL

PDO – 98.7 – 28th in the NHL

At the end of the day, one thing is clear. The Oilers are legit this year. The numbers show it, and the Oilers currently sitting third in the Pacific Division and 10th in the league show it.

Let’s see what happens the rest of the way, but as Robin Brownlee put it yesterday, No longer done in 41. Buckle up, if you remember how. It’s going to be fun.

33 Comments |

In May if someone had asked “would you be happy with the Oilers being 3rd in their division and 10th in the league in early January?” reasonable fans would have said “absolutely, that’s a massive improvement!” Anyone that’s not enjoying this season so far has a tenuous claim to the title “fan”.

I said at the start of the year before preseaon, if the Oilers are in a Playoff push and in games most of the nights, thats a big improvement. Now that we seen them go 7-1-0 to start the season we expected more. We are doing pretty good, lets not become Vancover fans ahah.

During the pregame interview on Hall it was interesting to see that he still is bitter about the Trade. (I would be too) but it seemed clear to me that he would come back in a heartbeat. (Not saying he should or should not come back, Just an observation)

Of course he’s still bitter about the trade. He spent five years playing for a brutal team. They finally look to be headed out of the darkness, and he gets traded to another crap team with miles to go before getting anywhere. Hall is basically spending the fist half of his career playing for brutal teams. He’ll need to wait until he hits free agency before even getting the chance to play a playoff game. That is bonkers.

I don’t think that’s the right attitude. If you are a first overall pick, it shouldn’t matter what team you end up on. You need to prove you are worthy of that pick, that you can make the team a contender. CMD is doing that. I’d like to see Hall do it in NJ. He needs to improve some aspects of his game though. Its hard to call people out and encourage them to play hard when you keep giving away games at key times, no matter how much scoring you put up. I hope the changes come, I’d love to see him do well.

Hall is still as negative as ever. He looks like a sad puppy. Even his TV interview/segment thing about the “Memories” he has from his early years was some negative story about how his teammates duped him and he was pissed off about it. I actually laughed out loud when I saw it.

A true leader does 2 things, IMO:
1- Leads by example, and comes up big when it’s needed.
2- In the absence of #1 (everyone has slumps), supports and rallies his teammates.

Hall does neither of those things. It’s why he was never named captain here, why he doesn’t make Olympic/etc teams, etc.

Everyone on the ice (including his own ex-teammates – see Scrivens & Klef) sees it, but for some reason a large portion of the public refuses to recognize the irrefutable evidence placed right in front of their faces.

It’s nice to see the numbers back it up. And while they could be doing even better if they didn’t lose so many against teams like Buffalo, Toronto, Arizona, and recently the Sens, the teams they have won outweighs the negatives of losing to bottom feeders.

I’d rather see their points come from beating contenders and divisional rivals than feasting on crap teams. So far I think the only div rival they haven’t beaten this year is San Jose. That is a huge turn around from last year.

As others said, this season is going awesome and there’s still areas to be addressed. Makes me thankful it’s not any of the past 10 years where basically every single area needed to be addressed. Buckle Up Pete looking forward to your moves between now and the deadline. Is Benning protected automatically in expansion? Maroon needs to be protected. Is ebs going to be exposed?

By committee is possible with the depth we have, allowing Nurse and Klefbom to develop properly. Additionally, Musil, Jones and Bear are all coming along.

Elite “D” very rarely reach free agency, and cannot be traded for unless you want to trade McDavid (laughs…), Elite D are almost always drafted and developed. so Chia is doing the best job possible upgrading his D, while maintaining his scoring. There is not much else we can do except remain patient and hope Nurse and Klefbom (or even Davidson or Benning) turn into that stud defender. We need to use our first round pick this year on a dman.

If you don’t like the Oilers, then why in the world do you use your time reading Oilersnation boards…surely the website name gave away what the site was about.

I am happy for Justin Schultz, and Devan Dubnyk, they were good pros when they were here, didn’t work out. Good for them now, I’d rather have Benning because he impacts my team in a positive way.

Your comment is ignorant and hostile, and should be removed, because it has no bearing on any conversation here. But I should say thanks, it is nice to know we are getting good enough to get under the skin of other teams fans. Makes me proud of my team! Go oilers!!

Ani is an interesting psychological specimen. Usually one gets past the stage he is at, at about 7 years of age. And I cannot recall a single Flamer traded by Calgary and who went on to much greater accomplishments elsewhere. May be Ani can help with that too? Come on Ani, come back and show us again just how puerile you are. Go Oil Go!!!

And a stick tap to you for mentioning the fine season Gryba is having. Love how he picks his spots to jump into the offensive action, drops his mitts to defend teammates and can break up a cycle. Agreed his footspeed gets him into trouble once in a while but for a #7 Dman, a solid signing. Hope he sticks around for the glory years as I beleive he is also a fine teammate.